By NATE KING
Salina Post
Salina Parks and Recreation, in partnership with the City of Salina, Great Plains Manufacturing and Donice and Roy Applequist, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday morning in partnership with the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce.
Members of the community, Salina Chamber of Commerce Blue Coat Ambassadors and Great Plains' leadership team gathered from 10-11 a.m. to celebrate the grand opening of the 'Great Plains Playground' located in Lakewood Park, 1323 E. Iron Avenue.
Those who spoke at the event include, Salina Mayor Mike Hoppock, Salina Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Hammond and Salina Area Chamber of Commerce Events and Community Initiatives Director Stephanie Gillig.
Gillig noted that she was speaking in the place of Chamber President and CEO Renee Duxler, who was out of town on the day of the ribbon cutting.
During her opening remarks Gillig, expressed her appreciation for the Salina community's support in the playground project and the City's investment in parks and recreation.
She also rhetorically asked those attending if they were enjoying the beautiful "Chamber Weather."
To which Hoppock jokingly replied, "I think it is City Commission Weather."
Gillig said the park demonstrates the "spirit" of the city.
"I am so proud to be part of this community, as I know we all are," Gillig said.
Mayor Hoppock
During his remarks Hoppock said the former parks and recreation director, Chris Cotton initiated the discussions with Great Plains Manufacturing, 1525 E. North Street. John Quinley, retired Land Pride employee, was also instrumental in making the project a success.
"The generous donation from the Applequist family, and Great Plains' investment in current and future generations of children in the City of Salina, shows the pride both citizens and private partners have in our community," Hoppock said.
In 2018 The Salina City Commission adopted the Next Step Parks and Recreation Master Plan, which identified approximately 187 items within Salina parks that needed to be addressed.
Hammond said many of the items identified in the study were "deferred maintenance," planned or unplanned maintenance that has been postponed.
"Playgrounds were part of that deferred maintenance. This one [Lakewood playground] was at the top of our list last year," Hammond said.
In the city of Salina there are 29 total playgrounds. Hammond said of the 29, one third of them need replaced.
"Whether it be because of age and heavy use, or because some of them have outdated surfacing, some of them were sand," Hammond said.
Sand is no longer an acceptable surface for a playground area according to the Americans With Disabilities Act, which was passed in 1990.
The new playground's surface is composed of rubber pellets that provide children and parents who use the playground a nice low impact safe surface.
The state-of-the-art $220,000 playground was made possible thanks to a $100,000 contribution from Great Plains and $80,000 contribution from the City of Salina as well as donations from the Applequist family.
" We ordered it [the playground] in January," Hammond said. "We took receipt of it in November and as soon as we took receipt of it, Miracle Recreation came in and installed it for us."
Hammond said he is very pleased and said he doesn't think he or his team would have done anything differently on the project. He did note however that there was an extended delay due to supply chain issues related to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Great Plains President and CEO, David Disberger also spoke prior to the ribbon being cut.
" I am so excited to be able to represent a Great Plains and this partnership, actually, Roy and his family have been able to put together the fundings to produce this wonderful place for children to come play and for families to come and hang out," Disberger said. "It's through that longtime commitment Great Plains has had in this community that's really enabled us to continue to grow and expand our business that's enabled us to do these types of projects. We're certainly very thankful to be a part of what we do here."
Linda Salem, principal advisor at Great Plains Manufacturing also attended the event- Salem even slid down one of the playground slides.
